Australia is No. 1 in the ICC Test rankings and won a record fifth World Cup title in the 50-over format last year but is yet to conquer the World T20. It has made the final only once, in 2010 when it lost to England.
New Zealand is on a high after stunning India in the opening game of the Super 10 stage on Tuesday in Nagpur, but Steven Smith's side will take confidence from the fact that it defeated New Zealand in the final of the 50-over ICC World Cup 2015.
More significantly, Australia has a massive advantage over New Zealand in the head-to-head stats in the 20-over format, having won four of the five matches the two sides have played. Australia's only loss, in 2010, came in a Super Over.
Shane Watson, however, stressed that there was no guarantee of another win, especially after New Zealand's 47-run win over India.
"We are going to have to play very well because they are going to be very confident leading into this game," Watson told reporters in Dharamsala on the eve of the match.
Teams (from)
New Zealand:
Kane Williamson (captain), Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Martin Guptill,
Grant Elliott, Colin Munro, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum, Adam
Milne, Henry Nicholls, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim
Southee, Ross Taylor.
Australia:
Steven Smith (captain), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile,
James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, John Hastings, Josh Hazlewood, Usman
Khawaja, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Peter Nevill, Andrew Tye, Shane
Watson, Adam Zampa.
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